Rangers’ Season Ends
It was a tumultuous year for the Rangers; they entered with high expectations, but after a long lockout struggled to maintain a winning record for much of the season. In the waning days of the regular season, the team leapfrogged their hometown rivals, jumping from the 8th to 6th seed in the NHL Eastern Conference. New York quickly went down 2-0 against Washington in the first round of the playoffs, but battled back to take the series in Game 7, giving way to a quarterfinals matchup against the Boston Bruins. After falling behind 3-0 in the series, the Rangers managed to preserve their season for a couple more days with an overtime win in Game 5, but on Saturday night it all came to an end.
Dan Girardi gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead with a slap shot midway through the first period on a power play, but Boston took advantage of their own power play to tie the game early in the second. They took a 2-1 lead ten minutes later, which held through the rest of the night. Lundqvist blocked 29 of the 31 shots he saw, and the Bruins added a third goal on an empty netter with under a minute left to play.
The Rangers lost 3-1, joining the Islanders in the offseason and ending any hope of the Stanley Cup coming to New York this year.
Mets Fall to Braves
The Mets resumed Friday’s opener against the Braves on Saturday following a rain suspension. Tied 5-5 in the ninth, Bobby Parnell did not give up a run, but his team could not break through in the bottom of the inning. Unfortunately Brandon Lyon allowed 2 runs in the tenth, and the Mets could not match Cleveland’s production; they lost 7-5.
That lack of offensive output continued into Saturday’s regularly scheduled Game 2. The Indian’s Mike Minor struck out 10 Mets over the course of 7 1/3, helping to shutdown New York for the whole night. Minor even homered in the fifth to kick off what would be a 5-run inning en route to a 6-0 defeat of the Mets.
After 11 innings of scoreless ball on Saturday, the Mets had to suffer through a few more innings of offensive imperfection on Sunday before Lucas Duda homered in the fourth to put them on the board and establish a 1-0 edge. A 2-run shot from Ugla in the seventh took that lead away, but Buck and Davis drove in 3 runs on a pair of RBI singles in the eighth to take it right back. The Mets won their first game since Sunday of the week prior by a final of 4-2.
Yankees Take 2 of 3 from Rays
After taking the first of three games in Tampa with a commanding margin of victory, the Yankees struggled greatly to build upon Travis Hafner’s RBI single in the first inning in Game 2. The Rays tied the game in the fifth and added 2 more runs in the seventh to take a 3-1 lead, but with two outs in the ninth a Brenan Boesch RBI double brought Lyle Overbay home and Bret Gardner’s subsequent single scored Boesch to tie the game. Ivan Nova came on to pitch the tenth inning and keep the game going, giving Overbay a chance to take back the lead with a solo shot in the eleventh. Mariano Rivera took the mound to collect his 18th save as New York won 4-3.
The Bronx Bombers were much less fortunate in the final game of the series, as the Rays hit CC Sabathia early and heavy to help make sure he continued having a winless May. Tampa scored 2 runs in the second and another 2 on a homerun from Sean Rodriguez in the third; they added 3 more in the sixth to put the Yanks down 7-0. New York did rally in the ninth once more, but three runs after 8 scoreless innings were of little worth at the end of the day; the Yankees lost 7-3.
Subway Series Begins
Last night the Mets and Yankees began what will be their first and only meeting this year under the new schedule for interleague play. Four games will be played in what is technically two separate two-game series—a pair at Citifield followed by two games at Yankees stadium.
Jon Niese and Phil Hughes had a tight pitchers’ duel running for most of the night as both men pitched seven complete innings. Jason Nix started the scoring with a fly ball single in the sixth that allowed Brett Gardner to score, giving the Yanks a 1-0 lead which only stayed put until the seventh inning. David Wright opened the bottom of the seventh with a solo shot to tie the game then, with David Robertson on the mound in the eighth, Murphy hit an RBI single to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. A one-run spread was all Bobby Parnell needed to lock down the ninth inning and give Game 1 of the Subway Series to the Mets.
That game provided the Mets with their second win in a row and 19th of the season, leaving them now an even 10 games under .500. The Yankees fell behind the Red Sox in the AL East, and now trail by one full game.
Game 2 will be played at 7:10 PM tonight, then the series will move to Yankee Stadium for two games (both at 7:05 PM) on Wednesday and Thursday.